Sunday, August 21, 2011

1. The printer. Any time I'm printing anything out, she has to sit right there and watch it. Today, I was scanning materials for my class, and she was so fascinated -- the noise, the moving light, turning the next page of the book -- she was spellbound. I decided to see what she would do if I ran the scanner without a document on it, and here's what she did:

Couldn't resist trying to catch that green light. I'd love to get a video of her but haven't gotten there yet.

2. The sound of birds -- any time she hears a bird outside, she makes a beeline for the window closest to it. Really, if she's in the living room and hears a bird toward the back of the house, she races back there and leaps to the windowsill. If it's outside the living room, she will run over anything that's there, including me, galloping over me like I'm just some other piece of furniture. It's fine now that she weighs about 5 lb., but when she hits 10 or 15, I think she will leave black and blue marks all over me.If we let her go outside, she would be a mighty hunter. Which is why we don't.

3. October. She adores our older cat. She follows him around, sleeps with him, and periodically stalks and ambushes him. He is very tolerant -- she other day when she was biting him, he was licking her.

4. Little mousies. Her favorite toys are these little 59 cent mousies that have a little rattle in them. Whatever she's doing, if she hears you rattling one, she comes a' running.

5. Anything that goes "boing-boing-boing." This little toy with streamers, a peacock feather, the strings on the blinds, a little ball on a rope -- she jumps so high, she could get a job with Cirque du Soleil (which, if you've never seen it, go).

6. Anything, really. She has such curiosity and joie de vivre, she's a constant delight (and a constant sweet aggravation, because she is always into something . . . ). Here she is, exploring . . . calamine lotion. And, she has become a Scotch drinker, after a fashion -- if my Loved One leaves an empty glass with melted ice and a teeny bit of Scotch in it, she's all over it. She just loves it.

So, there it is for today. She fills my life with joy, this little creature, and makes times like right now -- when I am up to my ears with work, school starts Tuesday, I'm a bit of a basket case -- bearable. Again, not a cat person, but boy am I a this cat person.

Who's Talking to You?

Elise Ann Wormuth

I am a retired college English professor who has reinvented herself as a fine art photographer, watercolor painter, and genealogist (among other things). I've spent my working life teaching other people to write, and now I will take some time to get back to writing myself.